Oral and perioral piercing complications.

BACKGROUND.: The oral an perioral piercing has a long history as part of religious, tribal,cultural or sexual symbolism and nowdays there is a high incidence of oral and perioral piercing in the adolescent population. This practice has a long history as part of religious, tribal, cultural or sexual symbolism. This article reviews current knowledge on injuries or diseases that might be produced by piercing in the oral cavity. We propose a classification to diagnosed the pathologies related to oral an perioral piercing METHODS.: A search was conducted of articles in PubMed, Scielo published between 1997 and 2007, using the key words ;;oral and perioral, piercing , ;;oral, piercing and disease", ;;recessions and oral piercing . It has reviewed about twentythree articles 17 were narrative reviews and 6 case series RESULTS.: A review was carried out on the origins of oral and perioral body piercing and its local implications, classifying the different alterations like recessions, systemic implications that it can produce in the oral and perioral cavity. CONCLUSION.: Patients with oral and perioral piercing should be regularly followed up because of the possible development of different types of adverse effects. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS.: Adverse effects of oral and perioral piercing can be systemic, with transmission of infectious diseases such as hepatitis B or C, or can be local, with alteration of oral mucosae or even of dental structures.